We all expected 343 Industries to make a decent Halo game, when they took the reins, but that isn’t what they did. Instead, they made a fantastic game that advances the series in just about every way. Halo 4 is the best looking, best sounding, and most intense Halo game to date. The folks at 343 could have played it safe when making their first game but they didn’t, and it paid off. Halo 4 is a brand new game, with brand new features, that I somehow still feel right at home playing, from the moment I picked up the controller.

Halo 4 isn’t so much of a reboot of the series as it is an evolution. While Halo fans will feel at home, those that are new to the series (seriously, what’s up people?) should be able to jump in, enjoy and appreciate what is there. 343 has laid the groundwork for something that can live up to its predecessor while still calling it their own. Halo 4 is exactly what the Xbox 360 needed at the end of a console life cycle, and it’ll only leave you wanting more.

Halo 4 is the total package, retaining what so many love about the core gameplay, while at the same time taking the graphics to the next level, adding in addicting level progression, and bringing more customization to the table. If you even marginally enjoy spending hours virtually murdering your friends in fascinating ways that make you feel like a space bad ass, this game should already be among your collection. If you've blown off the Halo series for no other reason than it's liked by many other people, I urge you to reconsider and actually find out what all that hype is about. Halo 4 hot dropped from low orbit on November 6th for the Xbox 360, retailing for $59.99.

HALO 4, the Master Chief's first new adventure in five years, picks up right where its predecessor left off, with a broken UNSC ship floating dead in space. The Chief rests inside in cryosleep, the artificial intelligence Cortana holding watch. It's not long, however, before the vessel falls under attack by Covenant forces, and the Chief soon finds himself crashing onto the surface of a strange alien world. The story that follows reveals new details about the Forerunners (the ancient aliens who designed the series' titular halos), exposes a new threat to humanity, and delves into the Chief's close friendship with Cortana, who is suffering a kind of digital mental breakdown. In addition to the six hour campaign, which shows off new weapons and vehicles (including alien rifles and a towering UNSC mech), players can look forward to more of Halo's trademark multiplayer action, including a serialized cooperative campaign composed of new episodes releasing on a weekly basis.

By any yardstick, this is a fantastic return for the Master Chief, and proof that the spirit of Halo didn’t die when Bungie left the building. Halo 4 is a visually dazzling, consistently thrilling sci-fi shooter, and while it doesn’t do anything at all revolutionary, it adds enough new ideas and material to lay down sturdy foundations for the series’ future. Most of all, it raises an enticing proposition: if 343 can do something this good on current hardware, what an Earth can it do with a next-generation Xbox?

A lot could have gone wrong with Halo 4 -- it was from a new developer and comes out near the end of what should be the last year of The Xbox 360 being Microsoft's newest console, but to the surprise of pretty much everyone, Master Chief's return is done in astonishingly good fashion. It's a near perfect mix of emotion and badass, of new and old and of great ideas and established principles. It's not perfect, but it is a must play for shooter fans. Welcome back Chief -- we've missed you.

With big shoes to fill and an enormous amount of pressure on them from fans to deliver, 343 Industries has struck a home run on pretty much their first time of asking. Halo 4 represents a bold step forward for the franchise that feels both fresh and familiar. Boasting Halo’s trademark multiplayer, a gripping campaign, an experimental co-op mode and the usual gubbins, Halo 4 like all the other Halos that have come and gone, represents incredible value for money.

A new trilogy begins on a solid, but eerily familiar foundation. Halo 4 is everything that fans have come to expect from the series, and though 343 Industries should hopefully take more risks in the future, one thing is certain: Master Chief is back, and in capable hands.

Halo 4 is worthy of the series it’s part of, a clear sign that 343 Industries is ready to pick up where Bungie left off and deliver hit after hit for the Microsoft-made home console. But for the other two titles in the trilogy, they have already laid out that the developers need to find new ideas, both when it comes to story and to gameplay, and implement them in order to make sure that the Master Chief featuring series is not left behind as the first-person shooter genre evolves around it. Still fans of the franchise need to pick up Halo 4 because it continues one of the most recognizable stories in the video game world, while those unacquainted with the franchise can enjoy a great example of what the Xbox 360 can achieve with help from a dedicated development team.

Overall,Halo 4 is not the best game in the series, but it isn’t the worse either. It’s a solid entry to Fall Shooter Season 2012, and if you’re a Halo fan, the multiplayer will probably keep you online for a while to come. The story is weak and has little resolution, but it works well enough to keep you entertained shooting things, and there are a few genuinely touching scenes between Cortana and Master Chief. 343 has said they plan to make at least two more Halo games and that this is the beginning of a second trilogy, so hopefully the next game will try harder not to abandon the plot lines they build. For now, though, Halo 4 is here, and at least it brings good online play.

Speaking of which, how do I feel about the future of this franchise? I've made it clear that the last thing I want is for Halo to forsake what makes it great, and while Halo 4 is definitely great – excellent, even – its biggest downfall is that, for all 343's minor new spins on the franchise, the formula remains unchanged, and this is more or less the same game that we've been playing for the last decade. That's not a bad thing at all (hell, it's what I signed up for), but now that I've seen them edge the series ever-so-slightly in a new direction, I'd like to see them take it even further with Halo 5. They've proven that they can maintain the level of quality set by Bungie. Now it's time to see what else they can do.

I like how you can commandeer vehicles in multiplayer, but I hate how weapon icons tend to clutter up the scenery. Halo 4 is a polished shooter, but its by-the-numbers style doesn't really bring anything new to the table. Frankly I was expecting more.

Previous titles in the series are far from perfect but Halo 4, for all its technical polish, is my least favorite campaign in the series. The elimination of campaign scoring limits the appeal of ‘story be damned’ replays with friends. If Prometheans are a pill fans have to swallow, 343 has to find a more interesting way to use them or I’m checking out of future entries. Still, Spartan Ops sounded like a cool replacement for Firefight – a mode I never really got into anyways – and it’s possible the writing and level design will get better. Even if it never pans out, however, I’m more than happy with the existing competitive multiplayer suite. Nearly every change 343 has made to multiplayer is for the better and I can’t wait to see how the game evolves as players apply new tactics, particularly in the novel Dominion mode.

If you're like me, a big Halo fan who can deal with a couple of let-downs for the sake of the greater good, then get this right away. Hell, get to a midnight launch. I'll be at the Trafford Centre and I seriously can't wait. It'll whet your appetite something chronic and leave you wanting more. Personally for me this is a 5/5 as the plot and atmosphere is what I care about that that's nailed perfectly *if you follow all the threads*. But for people with a passing interest in the series your money and time are better spent elsewhere.